PlayStation App

Background

The PlayStation App allows users to connect their mobile device to their PS4™ system with the PlayStation App to take your PlayStation experience with you wherever you go. Use the app to browse the PS Store and push downloads to your console, check your friend’s list to see who’s online and register for tournaments.

The issue

The main reason behind the PlayStation app update was to allow users to access the various features through the single app. Currently, users have to install individual apps to use these basic features, such as Messages, Friends, access communities, etc.

User testing

A key part of this project was user testing. The first set of user testing was done as part of the kick off stage – the targeted segment we used for this was heavy app users, this would allow us to discover what the issues (if any) and also to collect new user need. From there we were able to set out a list of user requirements that had to be met with the launch of the new application.

Competitor analysis

Xbox

Friends statuses

Messages

Activity feed

Video

Store

Console

Battle.net

Friends statuses

Messages

Steam

Friends

Messages

Store

Community

Authenticator

Card sorting & Wireframes

To help with the app structure a card sorting exercise took place to help work out all the touch points for a user and what their journey would be between features, for example allowing a user to select a friend from the friends list and allow them to message them without having to go through the messages part of the app.

This allowed the business to quickly define what the best journey would be for its users.

Following on from the card sorting we were able to work out the basic layout of all the page and note which content was required for each section of the app.

Design: What’s new

The What’s New section of the app on the PS App acts as the home screen and is the quickest way to stay up-to-date with your friends/communities latest achievements and updates as well as live streams, latest PlayStation sales, news and more.

A single update tile typically contains, the posters profile picture, along with the game artwork next to it. This is supported by text which contains the username, game title, and the achievement (if more than one, then the total amount) followed with a timestamp. Below this would typically be the achievement (or post type) image, name and what level the trophy is.

Design: Friends

The friend’s page, allows users to track who of their friends are online and offline it also serves as a quick way to message your friends and view their profiles. Through this page, it will suggest friends who you may have played with before or mutual friends you may have, you may also search and find friends using the search function.

Design: Messages

Messages page allows you to instantly see who’s online and message your gamer friends and favorite groups. As the messages are now part of the main PlayStation App you can also search for new friends and groups and instantly message them

Design: Store

Having a direct link to the store allows you to instantly download games and add them to your collection. Having previously logged into the app the process is seamless and very quick.

Second round of user testing

The second round was a good measurement to know if the app update would be a success, it allowed us to test with more users and ensure we have met all the user requirements we set out from the first set of testing. It also allowed us to take on any other feedback that users had and iterate the designs before the update went live.